Chapter 23
Date: August 24th
Time: 2:03 p.m.
Location: Percy’s room in safe house
AuraPOV
“Aura,” Irene scolded. She didn’t like people using harsh language.
“Sorry Mrs. Kamel.” I muttered like a kid that was caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
“What does this mean?” Fran asks trying to make headway on the situation.
“Maxwell Tate in simple words is not a good man.” I start off. “I mean, God how do I explain this?” I trail off.
“With words,” Matt says sitting down on one of the fluffy chairs, everyone else gets comfortable.
“Okay, I don’t know if you know this but Hacker’s usually have Suits.”
“Why do we care what they are wearing?” Iris asks.
“No not the clothing, Suits are basically just the people that pay us to make things disappear or appear. They're usually high rollers or gang members needing some dirt to be put on the enemy. Suits are given one name once they reach a certain position to which they can have access to Hacker’s.”
“Access?” John questions confused.
“Name, phone number, asking price.” I list off.
“What does any of this have to do with Tate?” Frank asks.
“I was getting there. Anyways each hacker is put into a certain group or category on what they do. Overseas accounts, putting dirt on someone else, so on and so forth. If a hacker is frozen then their name can’t be released.”
“So your name was never released?” Terri questioned more than stated.
“Correct, anyways Maxwell Tate wasn’t big for a while; no one knew who he was. Even all the hacker’s thought why would a guy like him need people like us? His name didn’t even hit the radar until a few years ago.” I took a breath before continuing.
“You guys remember how people started disappearing in 2009?”
“Yeah.” They all murmured.
“For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why these people were being targeted or taken. It seemed like they vanished in thin air. No one knew who took them and no one would have a motive to take them.”
“Yeah but know we know its Lockstar what does that have anything to do with the story?” John asks interrupting me yet again.
“If you would let me say more than two words you would know.” I say irritated, what was it with these people and interruptions anyways? “As I was saying there were the kidnappings which we then found out was, like John said, Lockstar. When I was in Lithuania and trying to deny my hacker ways I became too curious, people vanishing in thin air is right up a hackers alley. So I think a few days before I met you guys I went online to see if I could figure anything out about what happened. Now a hacker can get in contact with any hacker in any circle so I contacted the ones in the vanishing circle. I was pretty popular there with the whole Gresdale act and used the code name that we all seem to assign each other, mine was The Veil.”
“Wait you’re the Veil?” Iris asked astonished. “I greatly underestimated you.”
“What’s so great about being nick named after a piece of clothing?” Matt asked.
“At least she isn’t named after a color.” Terri retorts.
“Before they kill each other what is so great about being The Veil?” Sam asks.
“Well they are the most sought out hackers in the entire world because of their work with Gresdale.” Irene says and I look at her with a raised eyebrow. “We’ve had time to do some research.”
“Anyways I was given that name early on because even when I was starting I could always make someone disappear yet still be there. It’s like having a veil over your eyes, you can still see but you can’t see everything.” I explain. “At least I wasn’t named Fish.”
“There’s a hacker with the code name fish?” Zach asks.
“He always seems to have his target end up somewhere under water.” I answer. “Anyways back to the story my name was like the president’s name in that circle, once they heard it was me they did and told me everything. A man that went by Timothy Meyer was looking for the best of the best in each circle, especially my circle. Apparently he tried to get in contact with me a few times but never succeeded because he didn’t know who I really was. There was also something strange about this guy, his name seemed to ring a bell but I didn’t know what it was. One of the hackers I was talking to said that he was like a celebrity Suit. I didn’t get any more information before it became too risky to be talking so I tried searching him on my own.”
“What did you find?” Tom questioned.
“A nice suburban man with two kids, a homosexual, an infant, and someone in prison.”
“So it was the guy in prison that did this? The kidnappings I mean.” John tried to piece it together.
“See that’s what I thought too but then I thought how could he be looking for a hacker? I checked the date he was arrested and that was the same day the supposed kidnapper was caught.”
“Lemme guess.” Percy piped up. “It wasn’t him.”
“Not by a long shot. He was framed and the real man, kidnapper, and Suit used his name so that they could take the fall. After a few more minutes I found the profile of the Suit, which all are required to have. A little more digging showed that that wasn’t his real name, Maxwell Tate was.”
“What would the now head of Jethro want to do with kidnapping people?” Frank asks confused.
“I can only imagine that he is a part of Lockstar, remember not all of them are like the ones we have met. They could have regular jobs and with Maxwell working at a very high up electronics business that a lot of people use that means they can track down people easily.”
“And now he’s in charge.” Fran starts.
“Just as we got away.” Matt finishes her sentence.
“Ha-ha!” Terri screams. “I was right! A non criminal was right!”
“Congratulations.” Iris muttered sarcastically. “You get the prize of being right about an evil corporation trying to control the world and sell innocent human beings!”
“Sounds like a bad movie plot.” Zach murmurs.
“Tell me about it.” I murmur back.
“So what do we do now?” Matt asks. “Leave?”
“You just got here.” Olivia cried.
“She’s right.” Irene butted in. “Besides you don’t even know what they are planning on doing yet. At least make a plan of attack before rushing out there again.”
We all looked at each other trying to read everyone’s thoughts. It would be nice to stay, but there have always been consequences with us staying in a place too long. Plus we have already been stationary for five days, then again what could a few more hurt?
M.L.A POV
I bounded down the long stretch of twisting stairs yet again. I had to give it to the girl; she was as stubborn as a donkey, that was a problem for me. I do not like to be disobeyed ever what I say is what people do, what I want done gets done. When I ask for information it is given not withheld but I guess I could imagine that wouldn’t be the same for a listee.
I reached the third level where Maria was now kept, she was harmless enough. I opened the door and she looked up from her worn cot. Rooms on the third level were more like cells in a prison, cot, toilet, mirror, that’s it. I give her a charming smile and she looks away afraid to meet my eyes, this makes me smile more.
“So Maria.” I start closing the door and she trembles in fear. “Are we ready to cooperate today?” She mumbles something under her breath. “Don’t mumble!” I say my voice as cool as ice and she trembles again. “Now repeat what you said clearer.”
“No I’m not ready to cooperate.” My fists clench, this has been happening for the past five days, she would not tell me anything! I only wish our hacker was competent enough to get the information but he was useless! I was seriously considering keeping Carter here so we could get some work done.
“Why not?”
“How would I know anything about her in the first place?” She asks lifting her head up a little.
“Don’t lie you little rat.” I hiss at her through my teeth. “I, better than anyone, know when a person is lying and I can tell you this Maria, I don’t treat people that lie to me nicely.”
“But how could I know anything about her?” She starts to cry and I grow annoyed. What is it with girls and crying?
“Because you had her file, the file which had anything and everything about her was kept. You read it, you had it before those two burned it!” I yell at her and she tries to make herself smaller, controlling my rage I continue. “All I want to know is what the file said.”
We were stupid enough not to have a spare copy and something was going on with the computers that week that erased all of our information and data. Needless to say paper did not work out very well for us.
“I don’t know.” She lied.
“Maria.” I said threateningly before switching to a different tactic. “Well I did my best to help but I guess.” I trailed off going towards the door.
“Wait what do you mean?” She called out franticly bringing a smug smile to my face. I erased it before turning back to her.
“Well he really wants to sell you and seeing as there is no point in keeping you here anymore.” Her eyes grow wide with fear.
“No, no! I don’t want to be sold! Anything but that please!” She cries out grabbing my leg and begging on her knees. Now this was more like it.
“Maria you know I can’t help you unless I have something that makes you worth keeping.” Realization clicks. “It’s that or them.”
“Okay.” She says getting back on her bed. “Everything that we know about Aurora Carter is a lie.”
“What?!” I scream my outrage back. “You’re lying.” I grab her by her grubby shirt and lift her up.
“No I swear I’m not, I swear!” I look in her eyes and unfortunately she is telling the truth. I let her back down.
“What do you mean?”
“The files from then and now are different.” She explains quietly.
“What do you mean and speak up!”
“She never had cancer, she never had a grandparent that taught her all of this, she never attended the College of Dupage, she.”
“Enough!” The rest of the items she listed off were boring and mundane. “Anything else that is interesting? Or should I say vital to this search?”
“In the file it said that it was her parent’s profiles she deleted, in the flash drive she given it said it was her two pseudo parents.”
“That can’t be right.” I started to pace the small room. “What reason would it be that they would switch the names?”
“There is one more thing sir.” She whispered.
“What? Pigs are flying?”
“No you’re two agents, I don’t know who, knew of Carter’s location the whole time she was in Lithuania.”
“What? How? No one knew except for me. How did they know?”
“They pretended to be her friends and tried to hide her from this.”
“Who?”
“I already told you I don’t know.” She started but I cut her off.
“Who were they? What names did they go by?”
“Lyla and Matt.”
Aura POV
“Alright we’ll stay.” John finally said. Their families all let out a simultaneous sigh of relief along with my friends. I guess they really didn’t like the fact that we were going out to potentially get killed every day.
“But for now we need to figure out what we are going to do next.” Fran says standing up. “So if you’ll excuse us.”
The rest get up to follow her to some undisclosed location while the family stayed behind. I briefly debated taking the gun but decided to leave it here, no one would use it recklessly… on second thought I’ll take the gun with me.
Making sure the safety was on I took the bullets out for good measure and ran after the rest putting the gun in my holster. Fran was leading us down to the basement which also served as a panic room and training room from time to time.
The basement looked to be the size of a football field and at the end was a big black box that almost reached the ceiling and both walls. We walked over there in record time and filed in; I guess Fran really didn’t want them to know what we were doing. This room was sound proof, bullet proof, missile proof, and any other type of proof you can think of.
We sit down in the metal chairs that surround the table, Fran sat the head of the table, Matt and John were on the left side, and Iris and I were on the right side. Fran gets out a piece of paper that came out of nowhere and started to cross of places on there.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Crossing off all the destinations we have been too we don’t want to go back.” She muttered before crossing off two more places and capping the pen. “Now what do we do?”
“I thought you knew.” Matt said pushing his short hair back. “What do we do now?”
“Invade Jethro Inc headquarters?” Iris suggested.
“No.” I say before she can suggest anything more. “They haven’t done anything to threaten us and we aren’t 100 percent that Lockstar is controlling it.”
“You yourself said that Maxwell Tate was a part of Lockstar.” She accused.
“No I didn’t I said it was a possibility.” I retort.
“Enough you two.” Fran says before we get in an argument. “Aura’s right Iris, we can’t just go in guns blazing without any more solid proof.”
“This is as solid as it will get!” Iris yelled.
“That’s what she said.” Matt coughed under his breath.
“Matt shut up!” We all yelled. Must have been getting cabin fever.
“Look why don’t we wait until more pressing evidence comes up before we go in there guns blazing?” John suggests.
“Can’t we at least start?” Iris whines, “So when the time comes we’ll be ready.”
“Sounds good Aura?” Fran looks to me and I feel knots start to form in my neck again.
“What’s the plan of attack?”
“Well we’ll need someone to get all the information on what Jethro Inc has and well” John trails off.
“I won’t be able to get it from my computer I’ll have to get it from his. His computer that is in a securely locked building with multiple guards and cameras. In a room that is practically impossible to break into and with a computer very high tech that it could go off at the slightest difference.”
“Yeah pretty much.” He says nonchalantly.
“Great.” I mutter under my breath. “Why do I feel like this is going to be a scene out of Mission Impossible?” I say rubbing my neck.
“Because it probably will be. We need to get you in that office without anyone suspecting a thing and no offense but you are nowhere close to stealth operations.” Iris said.
“Who said we have to be stealthy?” John asked rhetorically.
“What do you mean?”
“Does Aura really look that threatening?” He points to me.
“No but they wouldn’t let any girl into the head of Jethro’s office.” Iris bites back.
“So we give her a reason to be there. I’m guessing when more pressing matters come up for us to infiltrate Jethro reporters will be there covering the action.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Fran says looking at John impressed, we all were. John was more of the bronze than the brains in this operation.
“We get Aura all dolled up so that Maxwell will be more inclined to take her to do a private interview which the head always does.” Matt starts leading them to do their finishing the sentence thing again.
“Fran will provide a distraction, something big that will get everyone’s attention, the guards and the reporters.” Iris says.
“Iris will guard outside and when the rest have gone Iris will go inside and say that Maxwell needs to come downstairs immediately giving Aura the time to hack into the computer.” John states.
“John will also be guarding the outside when Iris goes in to get Maxwell away from his desk. He will also be Aura’s camera man which she can go too safely after she gets the information. Then we should have what we need.” Fran finishes.
“That is not normal.” I say shaking my head at the group.
“Honey you wouldn’t love us if we were.”